russypoo

Russ Osterweil


Oakland, California, USA
Over

Born in 1956 in New York City, I was surrounded by an intense and violent urban environment. Making art was my inner world, my refuge.

I always viewed the world around me with a photographic eye, even before I owned a camera. As a boy I would make mental "photographs" by blinking. This was how I recorded what I saw.

I first worked with a photographer when I was 13, accompanying my mentor to hospitals throughout New York as he photographed special medical cases. Later, at 18, I had the great fortune to study “Psychological Portraiture” with renowned portrait photographer Philippe Halsman.

In 1995, after several careers, I decided to devote myself to photography full time.

Making photographs is one of the ways I participate in life. I explore my own humanity and place in this world by surveying the mysterious internal beauty, struggle, humor and irony, strength and vulnerability of others and our environment.

Boeken door Russ Osterweil